Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Pictures from the last few months
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Pictures of Granada
Granada and back
Kristyn and I went to Granada this weekend. It’s in Southern Spain and was the last great strong hold of the Muslim world during their 200 year war with the Christians, we are talking early 1400’s at this point. As the Moors were driven out it is rumored that the Moorish King looked back and wept. His mother said something to the effect, “you cry like a girl for what you could not protect like a man” …Ouch!!! Talking about calling you out. Needless to say I was intrigued with what we would find in a place with such rich history and such candid people.
What we found in Granada were many amazing views of the mountains, great plazas with all kinds of people, and spectacular buildings that took your breath away with their creativity and attention to detail. I can now understand why the king wept and why his mother was so upset that they lost such an amazing little valley!
As Kristyn and I were riding home on the bus (5.5 hours each way) we were talking about what we liked the most, we both agreed that our favorite thing was the “pub crawl” that we did on the last night. In this neck of the woods with every drink you purchase you get a free “tapa” what is equivalent to a starter in the states. It was great, we walked around from bar to bar grabbing a little “Cana” (small beer) and eating all the tapa’s brought out to us. It was so much fun listening to people sing, others tell stories and everyone having a great time. It was really a time to remember.
Some of the other things we took-in included: getting tea at a Moroccan tea house, spending 6 hours at the Alhambra, and watching the sun set from the spectacular view of St. Nicholas church.
Monday, February 15, 2010
Why are skinny jeans really called skinny???
Shopping in Spain
Let me first start off by saying 1. I have no fashion sense (and I own it). 2. The idea that some Jeans are called skinny kind of weird’s me out. And 3. Because I only have 3 pairs of pants and 3 T-shirts here in Spain I have already disqualified myself from writing this blog, but I will continue any way.
Kristyn has very delicately communicated to me over the last few months that it may be time to update my wardrobe, but I didn’t know how bad it was until I realized that she was hesitating to walk beside me when we left the house. To her credit I was wearing “what I thought was a very creative ensemble” of random mismatched clothes. But as I look back, it might have been over the top.
Because of these ever increasing “creative expressions” we decided to go out and try to update/replace some of my clothes. I quickly learned that my typical way of shopping would not be useful. For me, I consider it a successful shopping trip if I can spend less then 15 minutes in any one store, this includes waiting in line and paying for the garment.
So, after I made the switch in my mind I proceeded to let Kristyn help me pick out some jeans. We both decided that this was the most pressing need. As we began to look around and grab different jeans to try on I soon headed off to the changing room to see what treasures we had found. As I tried on the first pair I realized that this was going to be harder then it looked. For one, Europeans love very tight clothes and finding a pair of jeans that were not labeled skinny proved to be challenging.
I should say that it was around this time that I began to realize what “skinny jeans” actually were and why they were called skinny! I will spare you the details and simply say that it wasn’t a fun experience trying to get in and out of these torture devices.
The hardest part was then finding a pair of jeans that would pass both of our criteria. For Kristyn they needed to look like they were European jeans purchased in Spain. For me they needed to fit! After what seemed like an eternity (45 min.) we finally left the store with jeans in hand. Though we did end up paying an extra 10 euros because of a labeling mistake. All in all it was a very educational experience and one that will remain ingrained on my mind for years to come.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Kristyn's Birthday
After that we went on a gondola ride over the city of Madrid and landed at Casa de Campo. While there we went for a hike and then sat down under some trees for a picnic lunch.
We finished the night be stopping at a pizzaria down the street from our apt. and getting a barbacoa pizza and renting a movie. All in all and it was a very good day.